Many areas in this country are experiencing an increase in population accompanied by a larger demand for housing and commercial establishments in rural areas and around major municipalities with no access to a public sewer system. Conventional onsite wastewater systems provide a viable option for managing the wastewater generated by development, however, not all soils are suitable for these systems. Conventional onsite wastewater systems also require a large land area, putting a premium cost on real estate in many locations. In order to maintain a non-hazardous environment, residential and commercial establishments must treat wastewater that they produce. Since public utility wastewater treatment systems and conventional onsite systems are not always available or are not desirable, alternative wastewater treatment methods are often necessary. Due to the premium price on real estate and the high density of residential and commercial building, it is desirable to reduce and minimize the space required for wastewater treatment systems to treat the wastewater to acceptable standards.
Single layer recirculating media filters are currently available as site-built systems utilizing separate structures for recirculation basins, filters and dosing tanks. These distributed systems need large areas for treating wastewater to acceptable standards and require knowledgeable, trained, designers and installers. Intermittent (single pass) filter media systems are also available as site-built systems, however, they require up to five times more area and typically do not attain the level of treatment of recirculating media filter systems.
The level of treatment a system can achieve is directly related to the surface area of filter media available to the system and the number of times that the wastewater is passed through the available filter media.
Accordingly, a need exists for a wastewater treatment system that can treat wastewater to acceptable standards, does not require a large amount of ground area, and can be installed using simple construction techniques.